Avant Garde

The show is a mixture of various magic acts and comedy with magic. The before show activity on the stage was avant garde. With a series of fans in a circle, the air is circulated such that two large pieces of silk like cloths float up and down on the currents. Whoever thought this up was quite creative. It is mesmerizing and difficult not to watch them as they float.
Tonight, the show consisted of four main acts interspersed with comedy and magic from the MC, Michael Finney. Finney was a little lethargic at the beginning of the show and the audience didn’t warm up to him.
He quickly introduced Ed Alonzo, a comic magician who is billed as «The Misfit of Magic.» Alonzo was quite funny and was a treat. The brick part was indeed very funny!
Second came Juliana Chen. She had a different beginning to her set, but it became tedious after awhile when she kept making more and more playing cards appear. I was sitting in the front row on the side and I figured out how she was doing her trick. It did grow old quickly.
Third segment was the shadow figures by Sonny Fontana made with his hands and with the help of an assistant. Some are very clever when he imitates famous people. At the start, however, the animal he was making was shown on a video display. If you have to show us what you’re making, you’re not confident of how well we’ll know what you’re making.
The last segment was magician Kevin James who was on Season 2 of America’s Got Talent. I saw AGT probably three times in the years it’s been on and I saw one of the nights when he performed. This is a very entertaining and funny segment of the show. James is very good. Given my seating, I did see something that helped explain one part to me.
In between the acts, Finney did some magic and card tricks with audience members. He was OK but there was nothing that was new here. I simply was to give the crew time to ready the stage for the next segment.
Summary: The show is new and it needs to pick up the pace a bit. Chen needs to vary her routine more. The stars are Alonzo and James. The show started with a bang and ended the same way. It is misnamed because there’s no cutting edge, avant garde routines with the show, but it’s worth seeing. Get discounted tickets at Tix4Tonite or something like that.

The only way this could possibly be a 4 star show is if it were your first show ever to see in life. It was like every act here originally auditioned for «The V Ultimate Variety Show» and didn’t make it so they just banded together to create this.
There is nothing «Avant Garde» about this. Shadow puppets, disappear/​reappear, bad jokes and tricks you’ve probably seen elsewhere. A couple of the tricks were ok which saved it from being a 1 star rating but this was a pretty boring show. I actually checked my clock multiple times to see how much longer we had to sit there.
Juliana Chen who apparently is a «world champion of magic» had cards shooting out of her arms for basically 15 minutes with a little variation. Imagine seeing her do it:
First time she does it during her entrance (semi enthusiastic applause)
Second time (below average applause)
Third time (3 claps)
Fourth time (no applause)
Fifth time (is anyone alive out there?)
Their website says «If you see one Las Vegas show in your lifetime make it Avant-​Garde!». Are you fucking KIDDING ME??? Can you imagine someone at their box office saying «Yeah! Forget ‘O’! It’s all about Avant-​Garde, baby!». Sheesh. Obviously there are some pretty bad shows in town but how can they get away with saying something like THAT?
I think this may be the only suitable show for families with young kids staying downtown so distracting kids for an hour might be the best reason to go. That’s about it though. Stay away otherwise!

New show at the Plaza Hotel downtown. Five different magic-​comedy-​variety acts fill the hour. It’s only been open for a couple of weeks so there is some tightening up to do. Spoke to the producer who told me there will be different acts throughout the run of the show. I liked the magic and comedy and, judging from the reactions from the crowd, they liked it too.
Before the show, a different «movable art» piece I have never seen before.
Opening act was Ed Alonso, a very good madcap, comedy magician.
Michael Finney performed a couple of comedy magic effects with audience members that had the crowd laughing pretty hard.
Julia Chen performed her card manipulation act that was well received.
Sonny Fontana performed hand shadows with an assistant. Again another variety act not seen very often.
Closing act was Kevin James who does a «cutting a person in two» effect that must be seen.
Nice touch was that the performers greeted everyone after the show.

New mult-​act show at the Plaza Casino in downtown Las Vegas. Old-​Vegas style show room with tables and banquettes, so sometimes difficult to get comfortable while watching the show. This is a conglomeration of acts: a hilarious misfit magician, a guy who can tell you the city/​town when you throw out a Zip code, a woman (founder of the show) who does amazing magic with multiple decks of cards, a guy who does shadow puppets unlike any you’ve ever seen, a guy who makes his mongrel dog «sing». May sound weird, but overall it’s a good mix of talent, and never a dull moment. The show runs about 75 minutes and is suitable for all ages. Would defiinitely recommend.